I've had a similar problem with dates before.
I'm querying a proprietary CMS database that stores dates as a string 'YYYYMMDD'.
I'm using...
convert(varchar(10),right(VarCompletionDate,2)+'/'+substring(VarCompletionDate,5,2)+'/'+left(varCompletionDate,4), 103)
to convert to 'DD/MM/YYYY' format. On the SQL side this appears to work but in Excel, the date is treated like a string rather than a date and I'm not getting the date filters that you would get with a proper date field...
what am I doing wrong here? is the convertconverting to a varchar rather than a date? ...if I do Convert(date,... I get conversion errors.
In excel, you can select a data cell and confirm that the data does not have an apostrophe sign as suffix.
This forces excel to treat the data as text. If you do find it, please do a find and replace all in your selected data range.
If there is no apostrophe, select your data and go to Home>Number>format dropdown and then select long date or short date as the format type.
This will then bring up the date filters.
Managed to find the answer!
Convert(date,....)
Was the correct treatment to output a date format from SQL.
The Pivot table wouldn't recognise the field as a date after a refresh unless I recreated the pivot table - there must be some kind of data type persistence going on in Excel.
Related
I have a situation where I am getting dates in two separate formats, MM/dd/yyyy & yyyy-dd-MM, AND there might be even more different formats as well in csv which will be obviously in string.
Below are the data which currently come as String from CSV-
1/14/2022 0:00
2021-12-31 00:00:00
I am using a Dataflow task in ADF to load the data into Azure SQL where the default format it uses should be yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.
how can I do this?
ok, i managed to build a quick demo.
Main idea of my solution:
you need to differentiate between valid rows and rows that needs to be modified.
in order to do so, i used case condition.
the idea is to add a derived column with a name 'Date' and modify only needed rows.
Input Data:
i created a csv file and saved my data as a dataset in ADF.
ADF:
In source, i select my dataset as an input.
in a derived column activity:
added a new derived column with a name 'Date' , value :
case(contains(split(Date,''),#item=='/'), toString(toTimestamp(Date,'MM/dd/yyyy H:mm'),'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:SS'), Date)
in toTimestamp method, i added first the dateFormat of my input Date and in toString the desired format that i want to cast the date to it.
Output:
P.s
You can cast all possible date formats that will appear in your data in that way.
you can read more about it here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/data-flow-expressions-usage#toTimestamp
I am loading a flat file to a database table, and need to change the format of the date from YYYY-MM-DD in the flat file, to MM/DD/YYYY in the database table. I tried using the following statement in Derived Columns as shown below, but not sure how to configure the statement, so I got an error message stating that SSIS could not parse the expression.
Derived Column Name: EFF_DATE
Derived Column: Replace EFF_DATE
Expression: TOKEN( MONTH([EFF_DATE]),"//|",DAY([EFF_DATE]),"//|",YEAR([Copy of EFF_DATE]) )
DATA TYPE: databasetimestamp[DT_DBTIMESTAMP]
Can anyone help me determine how to change the format of the column in Derived Column? Otherwise, please let me know if there is another way to do it. Thank you.
This question was different from the last one. In the last question, the date column was data type DateTime. But in this question, the date is a string, and when I used the Derived Column to change the date from YYYY-MM-DD to MM/DD/YYYY, it kept the leading zeroes in MM and DD. The issue then became, not just changing the date format, but also removing the leading zeroes from the Month and Day.
However, I researched and came up with a better solution in SSIS for changing the date value with data type string, as the database I am working with stores the date in that format.
I removed the Derived Column from my Data Source Task, and added an Execute SQL Task in the Control Flow, then added the following Update statement which not only changes the format from YYYY-MM-DD to MM/DD/YYYY, but also removes the leading zeroes from Month and Day. The CONCAT function I used the sample SQL below changes the format from YYYY-MM-DD to MM/DD/YYYY, while the Convert function changes the MM and DD values to data type INT which removed any leading Zeros. This solution allowed the date to remain a string, as that was the table format I had to work with.
UPDATE [StagingTable]
SET START_DATE =
CONCAT( CONVERT(INT, SUBSTRING(START_DATE, 6,2)), '/', CONVERT(INT, RIGHT(START_DATE, 2)),'/', LEFT(START_DATE,4) )]
Thanks to everyone for their comments, as it helped me to think outside the box and determine this solution.
I have ran into a problem recently. One of the tables I have in MS Access database contains multiple fields but the main focus is on an autonumber field and date field. When I try to apply Select query with Max(autonumber) function and where clause containing date field, the wrong value or rather empty column is shown. as soon as i remove the date field from the where clause, the value is returned fine. My query is attached. Any help would be appreciated.
SELECT MAX(serial) AS Expr1
FROM coaDetails
WHERE (((coaDetails.[title])='CLAIMS')AND ((coaDetails.[dates])=#04/08/2018#));
The above query, serial is autonumber while dates is date/time with format as dd/mm/yyyy
There is no error in the query but it just gives wrong value. as soon as date condition is removed it gives results.
Use the mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy/mm/dd format for the string expression for the date value:
WHERE (((coaDetails.[title])='CLAIMS')AND ((coaDetails.[dates])=#2018/08/04#));
In the SQL code, the dates have to be formatted the american way: #mm/dd/yyyy#. In the query design grid, which is a user-friendly, graphical view of the SQL code in the back, the format depends on your regional settings.
Therefore, just use the month first:
SELECT MAX(serial) AS Expr1
FROM coaDetails
WHERE (((coaDetails.[title])='CLAIMS')AND ((coaDetails.[dates])=#08/04/2018#));
I have a VB6 application where I insert a set of dates into a SQL-SERVER. Each time I insert a value, it gets inserted as 1978-12-12 00:00:00.000. Is it possible to specify in the INSERT statement, how you want the date to be formatted? VB6 does not seem to recognize CONVERT. I did previously CONVERT date when I loaded it into a MSHFlexGrid like this:
Convert(varchar,tblClient.DOB, 101)
But I did this in a select statement. Will SQL let me insert a value in a format MM/DD/YYYY as I need it later in that format.
The reason why I need the formatting is because I connected all my tables in SQL-SERVER2008 to Access for report generating purposes. So I need it formatted correctly in SQL-SERVER2008 as it dynamically connects to Access.
Ideally, the data type of the column in the database is set to Date or DateTime. Basically, if you want to store a date, then use a date date type.
That being said, in VB6 you usually have to (at least temporarily) store the date as a string so there is almost always a string to date conversion that happens somewhere.
Will SQL let me insert a value in a format MM/DD/YYYY
Yes. But you should not do this. Instead, you should insert the date with the format "YYYYMMDD". Notice that there are no delimiters. The problem with mm/dd/yyyy is that it could accidentally be interpreted as the wrong date. For example, 1/2/2015 would be interpreted as Feb 1, 2015 if you lived in England, or Jan 2, 2015 if you live in the US. However, SQL Server will always interpret 20150102 and Jan 2, 2015.
Once you have the data stored the way you want in the database (as an actual date data type), you should actually return it as a date to your front end (either Access or VB6). In the front end, you should use the format command to display the date. The format command will use the regional settings of the computer to display dates the way the user wants to see it.
Ex:
txtDateOfBirth.Text = Format(rs.Fields.Item("DOB").value, "Short Date")
Doing things this way... you should never have problems with dates.
The best way is not to store formatted dates in your database server.
One way you can get what you want is by using a view where you format your data and use that as input for your report:
CREATE VIEW myreport
SELECT replace(convert(NVARCHAR, mydate, 106), ' ', '/') from mytable
But I would recommend formatting dates on the application level.
You can use VB6s format function prep the date before inserting it into SQL. Here's an example (tested in VBA).
Format(Now(), "YYYY-MM-DD")
The date stored in my database is 01-01-1900 for field emp_doj(Data Type DATE).
But while retrieving the data, the value is 01-jan-00, even though formatted with dd-mm-yyyy.
I am comparing retrieved date field with some other date in SQL query.
select *
form persons
where per_join = to_date(to_char(i.emp_doj,'DD-MM-YYYY'),'DD-MM-YYYY')
Here the value of to_date(to_char(i.emp_doj,'DD-MM-YYYY'),'DD-MM-YYYY') results in 01-01-00, instead of 01-01-1900
I suspect it's your default NLS settings for the IDE you are using that is merely displaying the dates with a two digit year. Oracle does not store dates in any specific format. It stores them in a binary format internally.
Therefore I suggest you check the settings for your IDE and/or database and you will see the NLS date format set to DD-MM-YY, alter this and set it to DD-MM-YYYY and you will see the dates as you wish to see them.
As for your query, why use TO_CHAR and then TO_DATE? If emp_doj is a date field and per_join is also a date then just compare them directly for equality. If you are trying to cut the time portion off your emp_doj values then just use TRUNC().
For examples and reference on NLS: http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/NLS
More here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/globalization/nls-lang-099431.html
select to_char(emp_doj,'dd-mm-yyyy') from yourtable
I have got some temporary solutions it currently works for me, I simply changed my select query to
select *
form persons
where to_date(per_join,'DD-MM-YYYY')= to_date(i.emp_doj,'DD-MM-YYYY')